BQS was founded in July 2007 after four years of working as an auditor, trainer and certification manager in The Netherlands, as Leen Klaassen saw the lack of sufficient consultancy companies, capable of assisting Ecuadorian exporters to comply with international standards. Given the fact that many companies in the agri-food sector sought general quality systems compliance rather than sector specific, BQS’ Initiative has been successful. As the owner and primary consultant, Leen saw the possibility of sharing his experience with his currently six persons strong consultants staff, two in Ecuador, one in Spain, one in Costa Rica, one in Italy and one in The Netherlands. The activities for BQS comprise consultancy for quality systems in general, freelance auditing for specific schemes, training on quality systems in general and food safety schemes in particular. Furthermore, BQS is the country representative for AgriQ (performing preparatory laboratory work for residue analysis) and performs auditing for MPS-ECAS, covering The Americas and a part of Eastern Africa.